Fans fuel return of IndyCar to Pocono Raceway

Tuesday

Oct 2, 2012 at 12:01 AM

Pocono Raceway President and CEO Brandon Igdalsky took in the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in Florida on March 25 as a fan of car racing, not as a business venture. And when he happened to talk to IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard, an Associated Press reporter immediately sent out a tweet noting the two were hanging out together.

MICHAEL SADOWSKI

It started with a tweet.

Pocono Raceway President and CEO Brandon Igdalsky took in the Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg in Florida on March 25 as a fan of car racing, not as a business venture.

And when he happened to talk to IndyCar CEO Randy Bernard at the race, an Associated Press reporter spied the two being chummy and immediately sent out a tweet noting Igdalsky and Bernard were hanging out together at the race.

That fueled rumors that the IndyCar Series could be returning to Pocono Raceway after more than two decades away.

The only problem was there was nothing to report. Igdalsky was just at the race as a fan, and Bernard didn't even know he'd be running into him.

Then came the phenomenal reaction Igdalsky saw to that simple tweet. And that reaction is what Igdalsky said was the driving force to bring the IZOD IndyCar Series back to Pocono.

"This really was the power of the fan," he said. "The fans told us they wanted IndyCars back at Pocono, and we did what we needed to make it happen."

"I think it kind of caught both of us off-guard," Bernard said after a news conference Monday formally announcing the return of IndyCars. "We didn't even talk about it that day (in St. Petersburg), I don't think. But when Brandon saw the reaction from fans, and he did some research, he got in contact and said, 'We've got to talk.'"

That was about six months ago, and now the IZOD IndyCar Series will be at Pocono Raceway for the next three years, starting with a July 7 return date next year.

It will be the first IndyCar race at Pocono since 1989. The track had hosted Indy racing back through 1971.

Since then, and since Indy racing left Nazareth Speedway in the Lehigh Valley in 2004, Indy fans in Pennsylvania haven't had a race to call their own.

When Igdalsky saw the fans' positive reaction to the IndyCar rumors in March in social media circles, the track sprang into action.

"The fans made it perfectly loud and clear they wanted IndyCars back," he said. "We're giving the fans what they want."

When open-wheeled cars left in 1989, it wasn't on the best of terms. Track founder, the late Joseph "Doc" Mattioli, openly warred with IndyCar officials, suing them twice and then taking Nazareth resident and famous IndyCar driver Mario Andretti to task.

Andretti's name graces Gate No. 5 at the track as "Andretti Road." Despite the fallout, Andretti often tried to spread the word to get the series back to Pocono.

"I fueled some of those rumors myself," he admitted Monday. "It means a great deal to me personally that it's back."

Igdalsky said before Mattioli, his grandfather, died last winter, the two talked about the return of IndyCars. He played off any awkwardness in rekindling the Pocono-Indy relationship.

Igdalsky said his grandfather spoke to his grandmother, Rose, about the return of IndyCar racing. He said Doc Mattioli and Rose Mattioli had differing opinions about the idea.

"He knew how I felt about it," Igdalsky said of his grandfather and his own penchant for IndyCars returning.

For his part, Bernard said he came to the IndyCar Series three years ago, long after any of the arguments. "I had no sides," he said.

He also said the improvements the track made this year — the full repaving and the raising of barriers along some portions of the track wall — made the return possible.

"And then when I met with Brandon, we immediately hit it off," Bernard said. "It made the whole process pretty easy."